Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1887-09-22
JOHN SHERMAN.
Able Presentation of Living Is
sues of the Day.
GOVERNOR Foraker INDORSED AND
PUBLIC QUESTIONS DISCUSSED.
State and National Politics and the
Principal Differences Between the
Parties Presented BY Hon. John Sher-


man in q Speech at Wilmington, o.,
September Is.
WILMINGTON, O., Sept. 15.-Hon- John
Sherman delivered his first speech in the
campaign of 1887 to-day before a large
crowd Of people and the members of the
Sherman Club of Wilmington.
He made an able presentation of the lead
ing questions Of the day. In opening his
speech Senator Sherman said;
'FELLow-CTTIZENS AND GENTLEMEN OF
THE SHERMAN CLUB accept with much
pleasure your invitation to make my open
ing speech in this canvass in this good
county Of Clinton. You have always been
kind and partial to me. You have sup
ported me by your votes and the votes Of
your representatives in the legislature of
Ohio in five successive elections for the
senate of the United States, and your young
men have now complimented me by the use
of my name in the organization of your Re-
publican club. For all these marks of your
good will owe you my heartfelt thanks. l
recognize In you commC atty Of indepen-
dent and intelligent farmers, firmly attached
to the Republican party, asking nothing Of
your public servants but faithful and
honest performance Of public duties You
have right, therefore, to expect from me
fair and truthful statement of the reasons
for the faith we share in the principles and
policy of the Republican party in preference
to all other parties under whatever name
they are organized, and especially Of the
Democratic party, which, for more than
thirty years, has contested with the Repub-
hcan pant ty for political power, both in Ohio
and in the United States
I'VE ought not to ignore the claims Of
political organizations who are protesting
against both the great National parties of
our country, because they are comparatively
faU 1hor nd 1iO1ifoI To ainorla h
ject or principle. 1t is the right and duty
OF any body Of American citizens to seek by
association to accomplish any measure they
think will advance the public interests, and
often by their zeal they compel attention to
Just measures and reforms, but usually sue
oeed in defeating the party most in SYM
pathy with them This has been the effect
and still is the tendency of the Prohibition
party. No fair man will dispute the fact
that the Republican party has done more,
and, from its composition and tendencies,
will do more for the cause of temperance
than the Democratic party will or can do
The Dow law. placed l'y it on the statutes
of Ohio, is more effective measure in re-
straining and lessening the evils that flow
from the liquor traffic than any other meas
ure proposed by either party. The leaders
of the Prohibition party know full well that
every measure tending to promote prohibi-
tion or the restraint of the liquor traffic has
been and will be opposed by the Democratic
party, a party whose success in Ohio for
four years has been given to it by those who
sell and by those who consume spirituous
liquors And vet our Prohibition friends
aim all their shafts at the Republican party
and act as allies Of the Democratic party.
81 know and respect the strong and grow
ing feeling in Ohio against intemperance
and the saloon influence, and l believe the
Republicans of Ohio and of Clinton county
will cheerfully aid in passing and enforcing
oil i1ot on6 hlo
these evils, but this can best be done through
existing parties. If temperance men would
only make their influence felt as members
of both the great parUies, for both of these
parties contain good temperance men, the
great reform they propose would be more
advanced than by separate action for ex-
treme measures, which experience shows
cannot and will not be enforced in large
cities and towns. And so of the Labor
party. If there is any just and practical
measure Of public policy that will tend to
advance the interests of labor or laboring
men the Republican party il now and has
been ready and willing to adopt it. Every
measure in their interest in the statutes of
Ohio and of the United States has been put
= there by the Republican party. The home
stead law, the eight-hour law, the contract
emigrant law, and that great system Of
public policy to protect their labor from
undue competition by protective duties on
imported goods have been the work of the
Republican party. The statute books of
Ohio are full of laws to protect their homes
and household effects, to guard them in the
mines and workshops, to secure their wages
by lien and preference laws, to restrain the
emplOyments of infants and women. The
last Republican legislature passed many
laws for their benefit. l ask them to point
out when and where the Republican party
has failed to do Justice to laboring men.
Our long struggle for thirty years has been
t0 mans HhartU and a0nal
rights. 1t is only when Socialists seek to
strike down all the rules of social order
which dignity the homes of the poor and
rich alike, or when Communists seek to en-
joy the property acquired by the honest
labor of others, or when Anarchists seek to
tear down all the institutions of modern
civilization, that the Republican party, as
the conservative party OF the country, re-
sists their demands. These men are GRIM
inals, and not laborers."
The senator then turned his attention to
the difference between the Republican and
the Democratic party, and said on this sub
jees;v s;vh.. man among our n.mocr.tio friends
would dare compare the acts sayings and
doings of the Democratic party, its northern
and southern wings, for the last thirty years
with the acts, sayings and doings Of the Re
publican party? 1t is from such compari-
son they instinctively shrink. 1t was for
making that comparison at Springfield, Ill,
the home of Abraham Lincoln, that l was
arraigned by our Democratic friends, north
and south, for waving tho bloody shirt. 1t
was bloody shirt. 1t is a shameless record.
The fight for slavery, the rebellion and its
fearful losses, the course Of the copperheads
in the north, the riots in New York city,
the knights of the Golden Circle in Indiana,
the fearful crimes of the Ku-Klux Klens,
the cheating Gen Grant out Of the vote of
New York in 1868, the Mississippi plan, the
solid south, one million of legal voters de-
prived of their franchise wherever their
votes would count, the election of Cleve-
land-it was q bloody shirt. But, did any
man answer this arraignment? Did / state
one single thing as a fact that was not true?
But some say let bygones be bygones. So
be it, Certain tenderfeet are afraid l might
hurt some ones feelings; that we should
Danish this word rebel from our vooabu-
larry; that we should take the new south
with Republicans, white and black, counted
out and say nothing We must become ac-
custorsd to the restoration of the old
regime as Cromwells Roundheads became
accustomed to the court of King Charles.
We must surrender our captured flags to the
rebels who bore them. Our Grand Army
boys, now bent and gray, must march un-
der the new flag, under the flag of Grover
Cleveland, OF not hold their campfire in st.
Louis. This is the new gospel of Democracy
and Mugwumpism.
s'Iet US, then, take the Democratic party
as it is, revived, regenerated and dlsen-
thralled, forgetful of the past, and what
does it promise of hope or glory for the Ma
tion or the state of Ohio in the future!
What claim has it on anybody in this law
abiding, patriotic community?
IF you look to its recent policy in Ohio,
and especially during the administration OF
Governor Hoadly, you will find it came into
power by pledges never performed and un-
natural alliances. 1t found in the state
treasury, under the careful management OF
Governor Foster, a large surplus applicable
to the payment of the state debt. This was
wasted and frittered away, and when their
brief term of power ended there was large
deficit in the revenue of the state which had
to be made good by a loan. The expenses
of our public charities were increased, and
the penitentiary, formerly more than self
sustaining, was made a burden upon the
treasury. Corrupt and improvident political
tools were quartered upon all branches Of
the public service. A league and covenant
was made with the hquor-dealers, under
which, and by the aid of a partisan judiciary,
the whole revenue from the tax on liquor
dealers was cut off for two years. In 1885
they sought to maintain power in the legis-
lature by election frauds and crimes in the
cities of Cincinnati and Columbus so gross
and palpable, so criminal and reckless that